From the mayor by thread

The fight against Yuri Luzhkov has reached a new level: a case has been opened against his deputy Alexander Ryabinin

The fact that a criminal case was opened against his deputy Alexander Ryabinin, Yuri Luzhkov learned after the fact - from Ryabinin himself. "This is an attack against me," - so, according to a source in the mayor's office, Luzhkov commented on this news to his associates. On behalf of the capital's government, Yury Roslyak, head of the Moscow economic complex, had to speak about the scandal. On the air of the TVC channel, Roslyak said: “We need to figure it out. His place is very hot."

The place at the deputy mayor of Ryabinin is really very hot. He heads Moskontrol, the main supervisory agency of the capital, and has the final signing authority on all investment contracts in the city, primarily construction contracts. “Ryabinin has a huge resource, but they took little things,” explains a government official. We are talking about non-residential premises in the center of Moscow with an area of ​​200 sq. m. Ryabinin was prosecuted under the article “Abuse of power”.

The mayor's office is sure that this is another attack on Luzhkov. And the stakes are growing - people so close to him have not yet been touched. “It doesn’t matter if the mayor leaves before the end of his term,” says a source close to the Kremlin, “but this is an attempt to gradually seize control of key Moscow resources from Luzhkov so that the change of power in the capital becomes a technical matter.”

EXTORTORY OR PARTNER

The official representative of the Investigative Committee, Vladimir Markin, said that Ryabinin is suspected of bribery and blackmail of a certain Moscow businessman. His name is not being released for the sake of the investigation. But Newsweek's interlocutor in the Investigative Committee claims that this is the general director of a well-known construction company in the capital market.

Back in the mid-2000s, this source says, the victim's company received a contract for the reconstruction of five-story buildings in the Levoberezhny metropolitan area. It was supposed to rebuild several quarters of the district, receiving about 1 million square meters. m of additional living space. Until April last year, the company worked without problems, and then the reconstruction was frozen, and the businessman began to suffer losses. A new government decree was needed to allow construction. But officials were in no hurry with him.

At the beginning of this year, the businessman was allegedly invited to Moskontrol. According to the victim, Ryabinin promised him to coordinate the documents, but demanded that the same non-residential premises on Bakhrushin Street worth 60 million rubles be re-registered in the name of his daughter in the name of his daughter. The official's daughter, according to some reports, now lives in the Czech Republic. The businessman, the same source continues, fulfilled this requirement, but when they allegedly demanded another $2 million in cash from him, he went to the Investigative Committee.

Ryabinin, says the interlocutor in the Investigative Committee, he comes for interrogations and denies everything. Another Newsweek source close to the mayor's office, who is familiar with the details of the case, presents a different version. It lies in the fact that Ryabinin was a co-owner of this construction business even before joining the mayor's office, and his share - this is just a version - was recorded on one of the family members. “The project was implemented, and Ryabinin decided to take his share,” the source says. “Most likely, having learned about Ryabinin’s agreement with a partner, the interested parties simply made an offer to the partner - to tell law enforcement agencies about everything.” And the official himself was allegedly developed for a long time. “Several times they tried to take him with operational measures, catching him on bribes,” the source says. "But it didn't."

FIGURE WITH AN IMPORTANT LOOK

Alexander Ryabinin came to the civil service from business. Business contacts at one time connected him not only with the wife of the mayor, Elena Baturina, but also with her brother Viktor. First, he became an adviser to Luzhkov, "a figure with an important look," as they called him in the mayor's office. Then he almost headed the department of construction investment programs - a kind of state corporation engaged in investment in housing construction. However, the department was abolished - it seemed to attract scandals. Its functions were transferred to a new body headed by Ryabinin.

The functions of Moskontrol grew by leaps and bounds. Previously, construction was controlled by Vladimir Resin, and investments - by Yuri Roslyak. Now the committee has received the right to the entire chain of support of investment contracts - their conclusion, implementation and suspension. Government contracts for construction, as well as control over lease agreements for family plots, also fell into Ryabinin's orbit. “He turned out to have the right to the final signature on any investment contract, and this is unlimited power,” says a city hall official.

Luzhkov trusted Ryabinin, according to the mayor's office. He is one of the few who could afford at a government meeting to suddenly criticize a document that did not cause rejection from the mayor, and expect that he would listen.

Last year, he headed the board of directors of Moszemsintez, a company set up by the Moscow authorities last year to buy from developers abandoned plots due to the crisis and build them up with cheap housing. So far, the most notorious operation of Moszemsintez is participation in the buyout by structures close to the Bank of Moscow of a 58-hectare plot in the south-west of Moscow, in Ramenki, from Inteko. It was issued in the summer of 2009 at an overestimated, according to market experts, price - about 13 billion rubles. So much could have been obtained before the crisis. For the company of Elena Baturina, the proceeds turned out to be most welcome - they helped her pay off her loans.

The mayor's office says that Ryabinin has been at the epicenter of the apparatus struggle since his appointment. To reduce his influence, some of his colleagues, when Ryabinin delayed signing, went straight to Luzhkov so that he would issue an order to approve the decision they needed. Among investors, he had a reputation for "loving contract wrapping." “Stopped 95% of contracts,” complains a source in the mayor's office. “It was almost impossible to get his visa.”

Officially, the mayor's office ardently supported him: a merciless fighter against corruption and leftist schemes, who "caused the strongest annoyance among lobbyists," its press service said. “Ryabinin was an eyesore to many at City Hall,” says a government source. “And many are now gloating.” But none of the dissatisfied colleagues would turn him in, the official continues, it's like cutting the branch on which you sit.

EXCITED ON THE FLOORS

The Investigative Committee complains that the mayor's office is putting pressure on them in connection with the Ryabinin case. Surrounded by the mayor, they say that this case is under pressure from the center. Just two weeks ago, Vladimir Putin criticized the situation with land sales; in Moscow, it is Ryabinin who coordinates the solution of such issues. Luzhkov, when they came for Ryabinin, was not even informed, the source of Newsweek emphasizes.

There are more and more scandals around Luzhkov. And in everyone, be it the village of Rechnik, the police "human shield" or billboards with portraits of Joseph Stalin, there is a conflict with the center. “Luzhkov was simply set up with Stalin,” a source in the Moscow City Duma assures. "He's not such an outspoken supporter of communism."

But the main thing is that Moscow officials are being pursued by law enforcement officers. At the end of last year, officials of the Moscow construction complex Alexander Levchenko and Konstantin Korolevskiy were accused of misappropriation of funds for the People's Garage project. By that time, the mayor's office had barely recovered from the arrest of the head of the advertising committee, Vladimir Makarov. Only in February he was released from the pre-trial detention center under the guarantee of the speaker of the Moscow City Duma Vladimir Platonov, and he set to work.

The mayor can hardly count on the new chief of the Moscow police: their relationship is still complicated, they say in the mayor's office. Kolokoltsev clears his department of the old team - the people of his predecessor Vladimir Pronin. After the scandalous "human shield" on the Moscow Ring Road, the commander of the first special regiment of the traffic police, Alexander Kozlov, was fired, who was recognized as responsible for the incident. The head of the traffic police regiment is the son of Kolokoltsev's deputy, Vyacheslav Kozlov. In the mayor's office, the resignation of the son was regarded as a signal of the imminent resignation of the father.

“On the second and third floors of the Moscow bureaucracy, everyone sees everything,” muses a source close to the Kremlin. - And they themselves go to build relationships with the feds. And the feds, of course, encourage it.” According to political scientist Stanislav Belkovsky, Luzhkov himself is not being touched, because the authorities still do not have a consensus on who will replace him. However, one by one, he is deprived of the levers of control over the situation in the capital.

There are rumors in the mayor's office that Luzhkov's right hand, Vladimir Resin, is going to leave. "Resin wants to leave before the decisive offensive begins," says an informed official. "And his departure will be the official beginning of the end." Resin is already handing over some projects to Luzhkov.